


Blood Is Thicker Than Water

by AnnaB_Calm



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, Friendship/Love, Gen, Healthy Relationships, Homophobic Language, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Male-Female Friendship, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protectiveness, Suicidal Thoughts, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, polyamory?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:00:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26708650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaB_Calm/pseuds/AnnaB_Calm
Summary: They are not like you.When you tell me that you are all that I have, I no longer believe it. Perhaps it was your own foolish mistake, to let me out of my proverbial tower, just far enough for a sense of clarity. It did not come easy.





	1. Prologue

They are not like you. 

When you tell me that you are all that I have, I no longer believe it. Perhaps it was your own foolish mistake, to let me out of my proverbial tower, just far enough for a sense of clarity. It did not come easy.

Blood is thicker than water is what you would tell me, lest I be aware that what blood we did share was stained and spoiled. Now when I say stained, I mean stained, the walls of this house do not need to speak, their state reveals the truth.

I used to think that my feelings of resentment towards you were unfair, that those brief moments of genuine care and affection should be enough for me. That the occasional breakfast makes up for what you did, and worse, what you didn’t. You twisted my perceptions to make me crave your love, even when it was phony, even when it was merely of an obligation. 

They are not like you. When they tell me that they love me, they mean it, no strings attached. Their kindness is not conditional, choosing to treat me like a decent human being, even when I feel I am not one. Do you know what they did? When I first mentioned the skeletons in my closet and their doors enforced with repressed steel. They cried. 

This new family, the one that I had chosen to love and the one that chose to love me back, it is scary sometimes. There are days where their affection feels like a vice grip around my throat and their touch burns my scarred skin, but those bad days have no comparison to the good ones. 

That is the only thing I can thank you for, because without you, I would not be with them. I would’ve never have been exposed to what a family is supposed to feel like, a real family at that, not the shambles that we had together. 

You told me blood was thicker than water, but you forgot there’s more to the saying. That the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb, words that you have used to keep me tied to you, have ultimately set me free.


	2. Not Very Good at Shutting Up

There was always that head rush in starting over. New school, new persona… new opportunities to screw yourself over. Etta would tell herself each new chapter, that she shouldn’t get involved in other people’s business. That she doesn’t have to play martyr to make things exciting. The unfortunate part is, she’s not good at keeping to herself, no matter how hard she might try.

It was school number 4, her last high school if she played things right. One week into things and Etta had gone by mostly unnoticed, the obligatory introduce yourself to the class went smoothly, using the most basic answers she could use. Yes, for once Etta was completely ordinary and unnoticeable. The school however was not. I suppose that was her problem for switching around so much, that she was left with the bottom of the barrel in terms of public education, which is really saying a lot considering public schooling. Already Etta could see at least 7 different safety code violations and just as many unstable teachers… which could be handy in future situations. 

_ “No Etta, we aren’t going to this shit again. Time to act like a normal stable person, we can do it. Only for 5 months, then we’re free.” _

_ “Yeah sure, ‘we’. I don’t see you out here dealing with things. I can handle things, just-” _

“Well look at that, you decided to come back after all. Big mistake fag.” a hyper masculine voice called out, it sounded like they smoked daily in order to achieve their vocal tool to scare the crap out of people. 

_ “Oh shit we’re getting involved”,  _ was all Etta could think.

  
  
  


Past the table where Etta sat alone at lunch was a behemoth of a kid- looks more like a grown man but whatever- at least 6 foot 2 and a walking stereotype. A letterman jacket, 

“ _ of course he’s a football player, gosh can the author be any more basic?” _

with a strong jawline and a beard that would put most adults to shame. He was surrounded by two of his buddies, presumably none of them were going to stop this. She peered over his shoulder to see the poor creature that had to be close to his old spice and b.o. Stench cloud, and of course the rather offensive expletives. Etta did an unceremonious lean to see just what poor animal mr macho was cornering. Her eyes had to travel down quite a bit to see a short figure pinned into the corner, complete with dyed pink hair, and a sweater that engulfed him. 

_ “And I thought this school had some originality, what is this? A netflix teen drama? I thought bullies would gain some sort of originality after all this time.” _

_ “Oh my fucking god, shut up please. Stereotypical or not, pinky ain’t gonna stand a chance against raging roid head.” _

“Come on Tom, I wasn’t even doing anything. Please, I want to eat my lunch, then you can beat me up or whatever the hell you think’s gonna make yourself feel better.”

_ “Damn, kids gotta a mouth on him.” _

“What did you say you goddamn fairy? This is your fucking fault, coming into my school with your perverted ass. That’s what it is right? You got some daddy issues so now you like to have old guys fuck-”

“Gee, for someone who’s so against homos, you sure talk about gay sex a lot. You sure this ain’t a repression case?”, Etta for all her protests that she wouldn’t get involved in this school, was certainly now making herself the center of attention. Four bodies swung back towards her, seeing a tired looking teenager, a sweatshirt also swallowing her frame, and to be honest she looked like a character out of a Tim Burton movie. Roid-head looked caught off guard with this new challenge to his fragile masculinity, it made him  _ pissed. _ “Who the fuck are you? Where the fuck did you come from you fucking-”

“Wow, that’s a lot of f-bombs, do you have no ulterior verbs or nouns? It would get your point across much clearer.”

“Why you little bitch, you gotta a lot of nerve coming into my fucking school and trying to insult me, you think just because you’re a girl we won’t beat your ass?”

“Actually that’s exactly what I think, for all your faults, and there are A LOT of them, I don’t think you want to hit a woman. I don’t think the school would like it very much, and believe me they would hear.” 

Etta stood on her toes, hands behind her back, in a sort of twisted ballerina position “cause I’m a screamer dearie…”

Again Roid-head, who she know knew was named Tom became flustered, he gestured to his buddies. “Let’s go, i’m getting fucking sick between the fag and this creepy slut. We’ll have Merry deal with it.”

They looked hesitant but followed him down the hall. Which left Etta alone with Pinkie. They stared at each other for a good while, Etta reaching out her hand but lost her nerve. For all her posturing, she was kinda anxious when the adrenaline left her. Her voice lost its edge and came out a bit croaky, “Why do you think they always come in groups of three? Like you never see a situation where it’s a group of four, or even two. Its very strange.”

“I didn’t need you to step in there, I was handling it fine on my own.”, Pinkie said. 

“Oh yes, you were handling it marvelously, however I was annoyed and bored, a really bad combination if you ask me, so I decided to make an enemy of the football team for fun.”

Pinkie stared for a moment, again, “Has anyone ever told you you’re insane? Because someone should.”

Etta smiled as a voice inside of her laughed. “Many times, but hey, it makes life exciting. Name’s Etta Lynn, you can call me Etta.”

_ “You were never good at keeping to yourself, this going to be fun.” _

_ “Oh shut up.” _

**Author's Note:**

> 🙃


End file.
